You may know one or both of the words in the title above: der Mut means "the courage" and mutig means "courageous" or "brave." However, there are many nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs that contain these words as roots, some of which have nothing to do with courage. Let's have a look.
As you can see, nouns ending in -mut may refer to a mood, emotional state, or feeling:
Hochmut kommt vor dem Fall.
Pride comes before the fall.
Caption 24, Eva erklärt - Sprichwörter
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Was bei vielen Autofahrern für Freude sorgt,
What causes happiness among many drivers,
stiftet Unmut bei den Grünen.
causes discontent among the Greens [Green Party].
Caption 19, Deutsche Autobahnen - Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzungen
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Die Queen residierte hier bereits und Michael Jackson
The Queen resided here already and Michael Jackson
hielt im Übermut sein Baby aus einem Hotelfenster.
held his baby boisterously out of a hotel window.
Captions 24-25, Berlin - Hotel Adlon feiert 15 Jahre Neueröffnung
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...in spektakulärer Anmut auf die Wasseroberfläche zu klatschen.
...to smack against the surface of the water with spectacular grace.
Caption 8, Evolution - Meeresbewohner
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Notice above that der Hochmut, der Übermut, and der Unmut are masculine, while die Anmut is feminine. You can also look up der Wagemut, der Missmut, die Sanftmut, and die Schwermut. For der Demut, you may more often see the related adjective (note the umlaut!):
Es war jedenfalls demütigend genug.
In any case, it was humiliating enough.
Caption 20, Lerchenberg - Das Wunder
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It's additionally good to know the adjectives ermutigend and entmutigend. These respectively mean "encouraging" and "discouraging."
When it comes to verbs, you may have seen zumuten, vermuten, and anmuten. These verbs each have a number of possible meanings.
Man vermutet, hier ist irgendwas in der Lüftung vom Willy-Brandt-Haus.
One suspects there is something in the ventilation here in the Willy-Brandt-Haus.
Caption 75, heute-show - Die männliche Merkel hat Erinnerungslücken
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Traditionen sind was Schönes
Traditions are something nice
und können für Nichteingeweihte mitunter ganz schön skurril anmuten.
and can occasionally appear quite bizarre to the outsider.
Captions 1-2, Barfuß unter Schafen - Schäferwettrennen
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Petrus muss Dortmund-Fan sein, anders ist kaum zu erklären,
Saint Peter must be a Dortmund fan, there's almost no other explanation
was der Himmel dem FC Bayern und seinen Fans zugemutet hat.
for what the heavens had in store for FC Bayern and its fans.
Captions 1-2, FC Bayern München - Triple-Feier im Dauerregen
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Further Learning
Look up these words using your favorite online dictionary or on Yabla German to understand the full extent of their meanings. Keep in mind that there are other nouns ending in -mut that are unrelated to emotional states, such as das Mammut or der Wermut.
Berlin is a wonderful city during the soccer world championship. Most Spätis (small convenience stores) just place large TVs on the sidewalk and every 50 meters or so there's a makeshift outdoor sports bar. When Germany gets a goal, you can hear cheering and fireworks across the city. But when Germany loses and is no longer playing, the city seems to suddenly go quiet.
The headline today of the Berlin tabloid newspaper BZ was Die Mannschafft sich ab, reflecting the fact that after having lost 0-2 to South Korea, the German soccer team, reigning world champions, are out of the World Cup after only three games. The accompanying photograph was of five players on the field at the end of the match with their hands on their heads, much like prisoners being led away under arrest. Very depressing indeed!
The phrase in the headlines is not strictly correct, grammatically speaking. It's a play on words of the noun die Mannschaft ("the team") and the verb abschaffen ("to abolish," "to do away with," "to eliminate"). The proper non-wordplay version would be Die Mannschaft schafft sich ab. An approximate translation could read "The team eliminates itself," as they have been eliminated from playing in the World Cup.
Let's take a look at some other contexts where the verb abschaffen can be used in the present tense:
Eine Partei im deutschen Bundestag will die Pressefreiheit abschaffen.
A party in the German Parliament wants to abolish the freedom of press.
Caption 9, Bundesrepublik Deutschland - Einbürgerungstest - Part 3
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Man will die Buslinie abschaffen, mit der Sie immer zur Arbeit fahren.
They want to get rid of the bus route that you always ride to work with.
Caption 25, Bundesrepublik Deutschland - Einbürgerungstest - Part 5
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By the way, it's not possible for a political party to "do away" with freedom of the press in Germany because it's a basic constitutional right, but if a bus line is being cut, you can start a citizen's initiative to save it. Unfortunately, no basic rights or citizen's initiatives will be able to bring the German team back into the World Cup!
Insgesamt zweiundzwanzig Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzungen wurden heute auf hessischen Autobahnen abgeschafft.
Twenty-two speed limits in total were scrapped today on Hessian autobahns.
Captions 7-8, Deutsche Autobahnen - Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzungen
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„Captain's Dinner“ [Englisch] und feste Tischzeiten wurden abgeschafft.
The "captain's dinner" and fixed meal times were done away with.
Caption 18, Kreuzfahrtschiff - An Bord der Europa 2
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Früher hatten sie solche Riesenmaschinen, aber die haben sie abgeschafft.
Long ago they had such giant machines, but they have abolished them.
Captions 40-41, Piggeldy und Frederick - Maschine
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It's interesting to note that by taking the verb schaffen ("to create") and adding the prefix ab-, you essentially create the opposite of "create" with abschaffen: "to abolish."
The landmark writer's guide The Elements of Style states that you should "not be tempted by a twenty-dollar word when there is a ten-center handy, ready, and able." German, however, has quite a number of words that "are so long that they have a perspective," as Mark Twain once wrote. The longest word actually included in the Duden German dictionary is die Kraftfahrzeug-Haftpflichtversicherung (auto liability insurance), with 35 letters. There are, however, many longer words that are acceptable to use although not listed in Duden, such as die Verkehrsinfrastrukturfinanzierungsgesellschaft (traffic infrastructure financing society) and das Elektrizitätswirtschaftsorganisationsgesetz (electricity economy organization law). Such "20 euro" words are not only found in written German, but also in spoken German, as evidenced by these Yabla German videos!
Auf Weltmeisterschaftsebene
At World Cup level,
sind wir so Mittelfeld, unteres Mittelfeld...
we are about midfield, lower midfield...
Caption 70, Frisbee - Karlsruher Weihnachtsturnier
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Außerdem kann man hierzulande
In addition, in this country you can
manche Reisestrecke auch ohne Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung erfahren.
also experience some travel routes without a speed limit.
Captions 22-23, Reiseland Deutschland - Vielfalt im Herzen Europas
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Wir haben die gesetzliche Verpflichtung,
We have the legal obligation
regelmäßig die Geschwindigkeitsbeschränkungen auf den hessischen Autobahnen zu überprüfen.
to check the speed limits on the Hessian autobahns regularly.
Captions 10-11, Deutsche Autobahnen - Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzungen
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Ein Porsche dreihundertsechsundfünfzig B eintausendsechshundert GS
A Porsche three hundred fifty-six B one thousand six hundred GS
Carrera GTL Coupé, Baujahr neunzehnhundertsechzig mit Note eins hat somit laut Classic Data
Carrera GTL coupé, built in nineteen hundred sixty with a grade of one, according to Classic Data
einen Versicherungswert von sechshundertfünfzigtausend Euro.
has an insurance value of six hundred and fifty thousand euros.
Captions 57-59, Porsche 356 - Der erste Porsche
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So as you can see, in common conversation about sports and cars and numbers (or a combination thereof), it is possible to find some "mouthfuls" indeed.
Further Learning
Read some of these fun articles about long German words at The Week and Time, and if you are feeling brave, read this Duden article about writing words together or separately.
Many words in German look like words in English, but can be tricky because they actually have different meanings. These paired words are called false friends or false cognates and can be the source of many difficulties when starting to learn a new language. Here are a few examples from Yabla, all starting with the letter A:
absolvieren: to finish a course of study or exam
False friend: absolve: to declare (someone) free from guilt, obligation, or punishment (German: entlasten)
Auch wenn man ein Studium absolviert hat...
Even after finishing a study...
Caption 88, Lokalhelden - Art House
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aktuell: current, latest
False friend: actual: existing in fact; real. (German: eigentlich, wirklich)
Neunundsechzig: die aktuelle Diskussion.
Sixty-nine is the current debate.
Caption 46, Kurzfilm-Festival - Shorts at Moonlight
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die Argumentation: the reasoning, process of reasoning
False friend: argument: an exchange of diverging or opposite views, typically a heated or angry one (German: der Streit)
Das hessische Ministerium
The Hessian Ministry
hat kein Verständnis für diese Argumentation.
has no understanding for this reasoning.
Captions 28-29, Deutsche Autobahnen - Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzungen
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Further Learning:
Try to find more words in German and English that sound similar but have different meanings. For a very funny commentary in German containing false friends, read this dialog on Grimm Grammar. Bis bald! (No, this is not about hair loss…)
aufheben: to suspend; to pick up
Have you ever longed to put the pedal to the metal? Car enthusiasts throughout the world dream of hitting the Autobahn in their favorite gas guzzler. In a recent move that has environmentalists upset and speed demons ecstatic, Germany has removed more barriers to high-velocity travel:
Das Verkehrsministerium hat einige Tempolimits aufgehoben.
The Ministry of Transport has lifted some of the speed limits.
Caption 2, Deutsche Autobahnen - Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzungen
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The infinitive of the verb in boldface is aufheben. As with many other German verbs, it has numerous meanings in different contexts. In this case it means to "suspend something", to "declare something as invalid."
Die Geldstrafe wurde aufgehoben.
The fine was cancelled.
Mit dem Ende der Apartheid wurde das Handelsembargo gegen Südafrika aufgehoben.
With the end of apartheid, the trade embargo against South Africa was lifted.
In our video about Karlsruhe's phenomenal ultimate frisbee team, we encounter another meaning of aufheben, "to pick up":
... und du würdest ihn einfach aufheben.
... and you'd simply pick it up.
Caption 19, Ultimate Frisbee - Oli erklärt das Spiel
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Have you heard the expression Viel Aufhebens um etwas machen? In the figurative sense, the expression means to "make a fuss about something." It originated from the language of fencers, who, prior to fighting, picked up their swords from the ground, accompanied by elaborate ceremonies and boastful words.
Keep an eye out for these and other uses of aufheben, an extremely versatile German verb!
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